Description

Written in the second century AD by a Greek traveler for a predominantly Roman audience, Pausanias' "Guide to Greece" is an extraordinarily literate and well-informed guidebook. A study of buildings, traditions and myth, it describes with precision and eloquence the glory of classical Greece shortly before its ultimate decline in the third century. This volume, the first of two, concerns the five provinces of central Greece, with an account of cities including Athens, Corinth and Thebes and a compelling depiction of the Oracle at Delphi. Along the way, Pausanias recounts Greek legends that are unknown from any other source and quotes a wealth of classical literature and poetry that would otherwise have been lost. An inspiration to Byron and Shelley, the "Guide to Greece" remains one of the most influential travel books ever written.show more

About Pausanias

Pausanias was a Greek geographer and native of Lydia who explored Greece, Macedonia, Asia and Africa, before settling in Rome. Pausanias is believed to have lived in the second half of the second century A.D. and is thought by some historians to have been a doctor as well as a scholar. Peter Levi was a Jesuit priest and archaelogical correspondent for The Times before his appointment as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In addition to his translation of Pausanias he also published biographies of Tennyson, Edward Lear, Virgil, Horace and John Milton, and 22 volumes of poetry.show more

Table of contents

Guide to Greece 1: Central GreeceList of Figures
List of Maps and Plans
Acknowledgments
Corrections
Introduction
Book I: Attica
Book II: Corinth and the Argolid
Book III: Achaia
Book IV: Boiotia
Book V: Phokis
Appendix: The Successors of Alexander and their Wars
Select Bibliography
Indexshow more